This invention relates to household refrigerators including combination refrigerators--that is, a refrigerator including a freezer compartment on top and a fresh food compartment below, both of which are cooled via circulating air from the two compartments over a single evaporator employing a single fan to accomplish the circulation. This invention relates to a household refrigerator pan assembly wherein there is an arrangement for controlling and adjusting the level of humidity within the pans and also allows for easy removal of the pans from inside the fresh food compartment of the refrigerator even though the access door to the fresh food compartment may not be in a fully open position.
Combination refrigerators, including a single evaporator and a single fan for circulating air from the freezer and fresh food compartments over the evaporator are well known. In the operation of such refrigerators, a major portion of the refrigerated air from the evaporator is directed into the freezer compartment while a smaller portion is directed into the fresh food compartment. When cold air from the freezer compartment is used to cool the fresh food compartment, such air, because of its relative dryness, should not directly contact the fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables as they will be become dried out and lose their freshness. The fresh foods are desirably isolated from the desicating effect of the cooler air so that they may be kept cool, yet moist. Sealed compartments or pans have heretofore been used for this purpose. It is desirable, however, that such pans have the humidity inside the pan adjustable or controllable by the user to provide the desired humidity, depending on the type of food load. The food load is the source of moisture inside the pan. Certain types of food have more moisture and will raise the humidity inside the pan as compared to other types of food. Moreover, certain types of food, such as green vegetables, should best be stored at a high relative humidity, while others such as fruit should not. Also, different degrees of humidity are desirable according to the amount of food placed in the pan. Small loads tend to dry out more so than larger loads. Various arrangements in the prior art have been used to adjust pan ventilation and therefore, the humidity inside the pan.
One arrangement for adjusting the pan ventilation and therefore controlling the humidity within the pan is U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,719 assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. In that arrangement the pan assembly includes a storage pan having an open top with a stationary cover secured to the inside of the fresh food compartment of a refrigerator for receiving the pan. There is a separate cover panel within the stationary cover which is movable back and forth along the top of the pan by a manually movable control mechanism and associated linkage. In the high humidity position the separate cover panel covers the open top of the pan and in the low humidity position the pan is open at the front and rear. With this arrangement, the user of the refrigerator may move the control mechanism to increase or decrease the amount of ventilation and, thus, control the humidity inside the pan.
Another arrangement for controlling an adjusting humidity in a pan system is U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,434. In this arrangement the pans have guides along the side of the pan cover that have vents which are covered by a rotatable damper having a plurality of positions and rotation thereof controls the ventilation of the pans.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,118 has an arrangement wherein there is a passageway all along the rear of the pan which is unsealed and therefore continuously open to allow air to enter into the pan through that opening. The front of the cover has a passageway with a slide gate for the user to vary the amount of ventilation of the pan.
In household refrigerators it is highly desirable to be able to have a pan system located in the fresh food compartment which includes two pans side by side and preferably one being substantially larger than the other. The reason, of course, is that larger vegetables and fruits may be stored in the larger pan and smaller vegetables may be stored in the smaller pan. It is also desirable to be able to interchange the pans for user convenience. It is common that these two side by side pans span the distance between the side walls of the interior of the fresh food compartment. One of the problems presented with this arrangement is that in many instances the access door of the fresh food compartment may not be permitted to pivot about the hinged side sufficiently to allow the pan next to the hinged side of the door to be removed from the interior of the fresh food compartment without being blocked by the door. It is, therefore, highly desirable to be able to have a pan system that will enable the user to remove the pans from the refrigerator easily when the door may only be partially opened. Furthermore, it is highly desirable to utilize the cover of the side by side pans as a shelf for storing articles in the fresh food compartment. However, the pan system should allow removal of the pans from within the fresh food compartment without unloading and removing the cover/shelf. One such arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,772 wherein there is a stationary glass shelf with two pans underneath the shelf. One pan is mounted on a rigid stationary glide. The other pan closest to the hinge side of the door has a rigid slide structure that conforms to the size of the one pan that it carries. To remove this pan from the fresh food compartment the pan mounted on the stationary glide must be removed first and then the slide structure and pan that it carries is moved in a horizontal direction transverse to its direction of removal and the pan then pulled out and removed from the slide structure. Such an arrangement, however, does not allow for the pans to be of different sizes and interchangeable from one side to the other which is very important in household refrigerators that have right and left hand opening doors. Moreover, the glides and slide structure cannot be removed for cleaning nor can the stationary glass cover.
By this invention there is provided a household refrigerator pan assembly which controls and adjusts the level of humidity within the pans, has a cover for the pans that also is a shelf which does not need to be unloaded and removed before removing the pans from inside the fresh food compartment, that allows two pans of different widths to be utilized in the pan system and be interchangeable, and allows for the entire pan system to be removed piece by piece from within the fresh food compartment for cleaning if desired by the user.